We’re only Human after all: a review of Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon

Screen and Graphics Preferences utility

Ubuntu 7.10 includes a new Screen and Graphics Preferences utility for configuring video hardware and displays. This utility provides an intuitive user interface that aims to eliminate the need to manually modify an Xorg configuration file in most cases. The utility takes advantage of new display hotplugging capabilities that have recently been added to Xorg and are finally included in Ubuntu. Ubuntu users previously had to restart Xorg when adding a display, but a secondary display can now be toggled on the fly.

The Screen tab of the utility provides a list of display outputs and allows the user to choose a default and secondary display. The utility can also set the resolution and frequency of the displays and configure screen arrangement by selecting where the secondary display is positioned relative to the default display. Monitor settings can be autodetected on most modern hardware or read from the INF files on Windows monitor driver discs.

Unfortunately, the utility currently supports only dual-screen configurations, so users with three or more monitors will still be forced to write custom Xorg configuration files. I tested the utility on a Dell Inspiron 1420n laptop and on my desktop computer, which uses three monitors and has two Nvidia Geforce cards. I encountered problems on both computers.

On my desktop computer, all three of the monitors were detected, but only two can be enabled with the utility at any given time. I had some difficulty setting which two at first, but with the utility alone I was able to get a dual-screen configuration with my pair of 20 inch LCDs. In order to get all three of my monitors to work at the same time, I had to eschew the utility and use my custom Xorg configuration file. I also had some difficulty running the Ubuntu installer on my desktop computer, and I had to unplug two of my monitors in order to get it to work properly.

I ran into problems on the Dell 1420n as well. The utility detected the presence of the laptop's S-Video and VGA outputs, but was only able to do mirroring. I couldn't span my desktop across a secondary display. When I plugged in a VGA cable and connected it to my 42 inch LCD TV, the "Secondary Screen" radio button was still disabled for both of the alternate display outputs in the utility. I could enable mirroring by holding the function key and hitting F8 (the CRT/LCD toggle button on the laptop) but spanning wasn't available. Support for mirroring with a single button press is still a pretty big improvement for Linux, and this feature finally makes Ubuntu a practical operating system for users who rely on projectors for presentations—a very common laptop use.

Although the Screen and Graphics Preferences utility still has some rough edges, it's much better than the solutions for screen configuration that were available in previous Ubuntu releases. Display hotplugging functionality is very new on the Linux platform, so it's likely that support for the feature will improve in future versions.

At the recent Ubuntu Developer Summit, I attended a meeting that focused on multidisplay configuration. This is an issue that is being addressed collaboratively by the Xorg community and several Linux distributors. Red Hat, for instance, is currently working on an improved configuration utility that could potentially support a broader number of multidisplay use cases. Despite the current deficiencies, the new graphics preferences utility in Ubuntu 7.10 will ensure that few users ever have to manually edit their Xorg configuration file.

Additional new features

Ubuntu 7.10 includes an assortment of other new features that weren't tested for this review. A long-anticipated feature added in this release is support for writing to NTFS partitions. NTFS, the filesystem format used by Windows, has been readable on Linux for years, but this is the first time that Ubuntu has shipped with reliable write support. This means that when Ubuntu is installed in a dual-boot configuration on a Windows computer, users will have full access to their Windows partition.

Another important new feature is support for automated printer configuration. Ubuntu's new printing system will detect when new printers are plugged into the computer and will automatically configure the system so that it can use the new printer without requiring any further user intervention. When a new printer is a detected, a notification bubble will appear to inform the user that the printer is ready for use.

Ubuntu 7.10 uses version 2.6.22 of the Linux kernel, which includes the new dynticks feature to increase power savings and make Linux more energy-efficient.